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I was browsing the Top Charts in the Apple App Store and was thinking about the three categories: Top Paid Games, Top Free Games and Top Grossing Games. I’m assuming Top Free Games is simply ranked by the number of downloads. An app with more “sales” gets a higher ranking. So what is the difference between Top Paid and Top Grossing Games?

I’m guessing Top Paid Games is also based on the number of downloads. And Top Grossing Games is, obviously, based on the total income. Wouldn’t they be the same list since more sales equals more money? Only if they were the same price…

I am now going to make up some variables! Let’s say the number of downloads is N for any game and the price is P.

Top Paid Games is simply based on N. AirAttack has the most downloads. So it is, right now, ranked number 1. The Top Grossing Games is based on total income which would be N*P. So a game with fewer downloads could move up the list by having a higher price. That’s what happened with Civilization. It’s price is $39.99 (a ripoff in my humble opinion!) compared with the price of $0.99 for AirAttack. AirAttack would have to have over 40 times the number of downloads to beat Civilization on the Top Grossing Apps list.

I could even get crazy and estimate the relative popularity of games by using the formulas (where the subscripts refer to consecutive games on the Top Grossing list):

N1P1 > N2P2

N2P2 > N3P3

and so on….

But it’s summer time and I’m off duty…

But I do have a point. The Top Grossing Games includes games that are less popular, but more expensive! So it seems there is no point to this list. So WTF WTH Apple? Why do you even have the category Top Grossing Games? I have a theory but I will leave that for a future post. What do you think?